Lucas: Trice and Co. learn early lessons in loss
December 07, 2020 | Men's Basketball, Mike Lucas
Badgers regroup with vigor to shore up defensive game
 |
|
|
BY MIKE LUCAS
UWBadgers.com Senior Writer
MADISON, Wis. — After a gut-punch loss to Marquette at the buzzer on a one-handed, put-back tap of a missed free throw last Friday, the bus ride from Milwaukee and the Fiserv Forum to the Kohl Center here was predictably quiet. D'Mitrik Trice listened to some music on his headphones.
He also listened to what his dad had to say.
"I called my dad like I do after every game to get his input and I talked to him a little bit," said Trice, whose father, Travis, is a former Big Ten player and basketball coach at Huber Heights (Ohio) Wayne High School, where he's now coaching the girls team after a decade coaching the boys team.
"My little brother who watches the game with him says he's always criticizing different little things. But that's what you get when you're a coach's son. You're used to it now. When it comes, you have to weather the storm a little bit and hear what he's saying and not how he's saying it."
It's always a constructive, healthy conversation, he pointed out. As it was Friday night. They talked about a number of things, not the least of was Wisconsin's excessive fouling resulting in Marquette shooting 28 free throws, including two from D.J. Carton with 0.9 seconds left in the game.
Trice was guilty of the blocking foul that put Carton on the line. Afterward, he owned it, too, much to his credit. During his post-game media comments, Trice took full responsibility for making a bad decision in attempting to take a charge. He admitted as much again Sunday afternoon.
"I shouldn't have put the team in that situation where I was trying to take a charge then. It was a dumb decision. I've learned from it and obviously it won't happen again. It's something that I regret. But like I've said, it's not a loss, it's a lesson. I'm excited to get back to it and continue to work."
Asked if he had lost track of the time remaining, he said, "I did a little bit. I knew there was about five seconds on the clock when they inbounded. I couldn't gauge how fast he (Carton) was actually coming and how much time was on the clock when he was driving.
"I couldn't look up or I probably would have lost vision of what he was doing.
"I just have to have better time management."
In the clutch, Trice had been at his playmaking and shot-making best.
At the two-minute mark, he hit two free throws (his only ones of the game) to push the Badgers into a 57-56 lead. Over the final 1:42, there were seven lead changes including Justin Lewis' game-winning tap. The teams combined to go 8-of-8 from the field (MU was 5-of-5 and UW was 3-of-3).
"It was very active," Trice said. "We did a good job of executing (the offense) down the stretch."
But there was a caveat.
"We've got to be better on the defensive end."
With 30 seconds left, Trice delivered a perfect lob pass to Nate Reuvers for a basket at the rim.
"I knew that they were kind of hedging hard and fly-trapping pretty hard," Trice said. "I knew if I made the right read either the backside guy would be open, or Nate would be on the lob. Nate got behind them a little bit so I lobbed it up to the point where he could get it and they couldn't.
"He made a great catch and finished the play.
"It's something we need to look for more (in the future)."
After Carton, the former Ohio State guard, scored on a drive to give the Golden Eagles the lead again, 64-63; UW head coach Greg Gard called a timeout with 14 seconds remaining. Gard substituted Micah Potter, the former OSU forward, for Tyler Wahl.
When play resumed, Trice hunted his shot and nailed a step-back jumper with five seconds left.
Wisconsin 65, Marquette 64.
"That was just an opportunity to put the team up and the team and the coaches trusted me with the ball at the end of the game," Trice said of the possession. "I knew that I had to get it (the shot) up with at least enough time if I did miss that it would give us a chance to rebound and put it back in.
"It was a step-back — something I've worked on over the summer.
"When I released it from my hand, I knew that it was good."
His euphoria was short-lived after fouling Carton at the other end of the floor.
"Like I said, it was a learning experience even for us guys that have a lot of experience," said Trice, a fifth-year senior, one of four on the roster. "You go through new situations, new scenarios every day. And you just have to learn from them."
The Badgers were called for 11 fouls in each half and Trice was asked if it was a product of being overly aggressive at times or it had something to do with playing a more athletic and skilled opponent with great length, like the Golden Eagles, as opposed to their undersized foes in the first three blowouts.
"I'd say it's a little bit of both," he suggested. "We need to be more fundamentally sound on defense by staying on the ground and not getting the cheap little fouls that give us our first one, then the next one is a bang-bang play which happens throughout the game of basketball.
"We have to eliminate the really cheap fouls. Obviously, we fouled way too much."
Trice finished with a team-high 17 points and six rebounds. He also had two assists and three turnovers, the first of which came on an errant pass at 7:57 of the first half. It was his first turnover of the season, snapping a stretch of 103 minutes and 13 seconds without one.
"I thought about it once it happened, 'Dang, that's the first one,'" said Trice, laughing.
During last season's eight-game winning streak, he had 46 assists and just 14 turnovers.
"It definitely carried over," Trice said. "And I think the guys trust me even more than they did last year. I know the coaches believe in me and I know the work I've put in (over the summer) will definitely help me. I just have to stay with the same confidence."
On Gard's direction, he noted, the Badgers practiced with a renewed "purpose" on Sunday.
"We just did pretty much drills all practice," he said. "We usually do two days of prep for teams (the upcoming opponent). But today was more of a get-after-it, tough practice. It was definitely taxing on our bodies. And it was definitely the toughest one since the week before our first game."
The players also sat through a film review/critique of the Marquette loss.
"The film session was very, very long — one of the longest that I've had since I've been here," Trice said. "It was a good practice, though. The coaches did a good job of patting guys on the back, but also teaching us what we did wrong and what we did right."
Trice took a few things away from Gard's messaging.
"That we have a lot to work on really — there's a lot of areas that we need to improve on," he said. "We went over a lot of those topics and situations. Coach has said it a couple of times now: we really didn't deserve to win that game. We did a lot of things that were out of character.
"He mentioned had we won; it would have been fool's gold because we did not play very well."
The defeat snapped an 11-game winning streak over two seasons. The Badgers went 302 days between losses since getting beat at Minnesota on February 5. Trice acknowledged that he was having trouble processing how long ago that actually was when he dressed in a losing locker room.
"Taking this bump early in the road will definitely open our eyes," he said. "I think we're going to come out again with that hunger and mean streak that we had at the end of last year and started this year with. If we don't play our 'A' game, we know that we can lose to anybody."
Tight one midway through the second half against Marquette@DMitrikTrice0 - 11 points@BigJam_23 - 9 points@Reuvers35 - 9 points@JonathanCDavis1 - 8 points
— Wisconsin Basketball (@BadgerMBB) December 5, 2020
MU 43, WIS 42 | 11:51 2H pic.twitter.com/D0dsM8kI41
In this category, Trice would give Johnny Davis a high grade for his play at Marquette.
"He was super athletic, and he showed his athleticism at times getting rebounds and playing really good defense," he said of Davis who played nearly 30 minutes and contributed 12 points (4-of-7 FG, 4-of-4 FT) and six rebounds, a most impressive outing for the true freshman from La Crosse.
"That's what he can bring. He's a scoring threat. He can hit pull-ups and knock down 3's and free throws. And he's smart when he takes shots. It's a testament to him and how much he was worked and how much confidence the guys and the coaching staff have in him to be able to play down the stretch."
After Sunday's practice, Gard reminded his players of a fact of 2020 life.
"Coach said, 'We just have to control what we control — we can't control what other teams do or who we're playing but we can control what we do in making our team stay healthy,"' Trice relayed. "Right now, we have to be prepared for anything and everything."
Leading up to the start of the Big Ten season, regardless of who the Badgers play, and they are scheduled to return to action Wednesday at the Kohl Center, Trice said, "These games are super important. The first three games, we were just getting people acclimated to playing again."
Wisconsin beat Eastern Illinois, Arkansas-Pine Bluff and Green Bay by a combined 251-167.
"Now it's time for big boy basketball. From now on, we don't have any more of those easier games with teams that we're just going to blow out. We've got to come with it every night or we could go home with an 'L.' The guys understand that teams are going to give us their best shot."
And they have to return fire. Friday's loss and Sunday's practice reinforced that.
